This invention relates to an apparatus and method for fracturing bones into smaller bone particles, or morsels, for use in surgical procedures such as surgical grafting for bone augmentation or repair.
Surgeons, particularly when dealing with spinal fusion, oral/maxillofacial, orthopedic, periodontal, and implant applications, often perform autologous bone grafts using autogenous bone that is ground into relatively small particles, or morsels. For example, in a spinal fusion application, the surgeon can use bone from the patient's mandibular symphsis or ramus, then grind the bone and utilize the bone morsels in the fusion procedure. Such procedures reduce the costs of surgery compared with other products, such as hydroxy appetite (HA) granules, processed coral, or freeze-dried bone.
Bones are often morselized by bone mills having a cutting blade with a plurality of teeth. However these devices are relatively inefficient since they require a significant amount of mechanical force as well as time to complete the morselization process. Also, there is often a significant loss of bone within the bone grinders themselves, since chunks of bone become wedged between adjacent teeth of the cutting blade and/or between the teeth and the milling apparatus. Other designs of bone mills involve rasp tools and are very complicated and expensive.
Therefore, what is needed is an apparatus and method for bone morselization which avoid the above problems.
All patents listed in Table 1 are hereby incorporated by reference herein in their respective entities. As those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate readily upon reading the Summary of the Invention, Detailed Description of the Preferred Embodiments and Claims set forth below, many of the devices and methods disclosed in the patents of Table 1 may be modified advantageously by using the teachings of the present invention.
TABLE 1Patent/Publication No.Patented/Published DateInventor6,318,651Nov. 20, 2001Spiering6,287,312Sep. 11, 2001Clokie et al.6,162,227Dec. 19, 2000Eckhardt et al.5,918,821Jul. 6, 1999Grooms et al.5,769,853Jun. 23, 1998Quetin5,607,269Mar. 4, 1997Dowd et al.4,706,897Nov. 17, 1987Moeller4,252,282Feb. 24, 1981Vermeulen, et al.6,142,997Nov. 7, 2000Michelson5,653,713Aug. 5, 1997Fischer